jeudi, mars 15, 2007

In the ongoing development of our food-based relationship (i.e., I cook a load of food, he brings the alcohol), DJ came over tonight to help me eat the mountainous load of arroz chaufa (note: the recipe in this link isn't the same as my recipe). I haven't had or made arroz chaufa since I left Chicago last August, and I forgot how much I missed it until I made it. Since it is essentially a Peruvian-Chinese version of fried rice, I prepared all the materials ahead of time (chopped green onions, rice, chicken or beef or pork in a soy-ginger-cassonade glaze) and whipped them together with DJ when he got there. The results were FANTASTIC, but I have to admit that arroz chaufa is total comfort food for me. I've grown up with this food and I have many happy memories of all of us kids rushing to the table to wolf down as much of this stuff as possible. So I realize that any arroz chaufa that follows my mother's recipe will always be amazing to me. On the other hand, DJ made my inner latina mom proud by valiantly attempting a second heaping plateful, so I think it went well. And this was after we ate sliced dry sausage with our apéritif (very french), purple potato salad, and a simple green salad (I was really channeling the stereotypical latina mother and preparing too much food).

Ironically, I totally forgot to take pictures of the food prep for the arroz chaufa, so the recipe + photoblogging will have to wait. On the other hand, I did get a few pictures of the purple potato salad. By the way, if you haven't tried purple potatoes (a.k.a. vitelotte in France), you totally should. They're harder to find in the USA or Canada, but they're pretty available near the Andes or in Europe (when in season).

Purple Potato & Rosemary Salad

Ingredients

Approx 1/2-kg of purple potatoes (10 or so small ones)

One onion, chopped

Two sweet peppers of any colour, chopped (I used white and purple)

The juice of one lemon

Mayo as needed (no more than 1 cup)

1 leek, chopped and sautéed lightly in butter (optional)

Dijon mustard (optional)

Salt and/or pepper to taste

2 sprigs of rosemary

Preparation

Put the potatoes to steam (20 minutes in a pressure cooker with a basket, dunno about regular steamers). Place the rosemary in the basket to steam with potatoes, but reserve about half of it for later. I like to leave the skins on, because it's better for you, tastes better, and helps keep the purple colour from leaking into the water. Also, you can boil the potatoes rather than steam them, but they tend to lose their colour this way as well.

The important part is to mix almost all of the ingredients while the potatoes are still warm, so I suggest chopping up all of the other ingredients while the potatoes are cooking and having them ready to go, much like in the image below

When the potatoes are ready, remove from steamer and cut into cubes. Admire their adorably purple flesh. Snicker at the phrase "adorably purple flesh."

Chop the remaining rosemary and mix it in with the hot potatoes.

Add the remaining ingredients (except the mayo) and mix. Make sure the mixture is no longer very hot (high heat will curdle the mayo) and mix in the mayo. Serve!